Food bloggers are planners. When
food bloggers go on holidays, they pride themselves in researching places to
eat and formulating strategies in order to best cover the gustatory highlights
of the area of visit. Reservations are made where permitted, forming the rigid
pillars of an eating schedule, with less formal dining slotted in at remaining
times.

All that forethought is thrown
out the window when you find yourself booking tickets to Munich only a week
ahead of departure (and getting suitably excited as you’ve never been to Europe
before – yay!), and there are more pressing issues as taking an extended work
lunch break to get to a bank to make sure you have some Euros up your sleeve
before you go.

Monsieur Poisson recently started
a new job with a German firm which requires its employees to visit head
office to get a better feel of main operations as well as to meet members
of their overseas team. As accommodation and his flights are provided, coupled
with a normally tough manager being sympathetic and granting me leave, I jumped
at the opportunity to tag along.

The husband’s company flies all
of its employees business class (not just upper management, ha!) which meant I
sat separately in economy on both legs of the journey here. With business
tickets costing 3.5 times the price of economy, the choice of potentially
having more spending, and eating, money was definitely more attractive. So what
does the luxury of a business class ticket buy you?

Well, there is a twinkly ceiling
to sleep under on a fully-reclinable seat, copious amounts of leg room and food
which doesn’t look like frozen dinners, served on proper plates with proper
cutlery. He also received a an extensive toiletries pack with Bvlgari products
inside! The husband only managed a few decent photos of the plane food (such a
well-trained partner of a food blogger, no?) and I none at all, as our first
flight was kept dark almost the whole journey, even at meal times, I assume to
encourage people to sleep and get their body clocks in sync with the time
difference. I normally can’t sleep on planes but, having not slept at all the
night before, due to needing to check in around 3am for a 6am flight, this
proved to not be an issue for once. However it was very broken sleep, unlike someone else in business class (*cough*), and I was absolutely haggard
by the time we arrived in Munich. This wasn’t helped by over an hour’s worth of
turbulence on our second flight, which brought back memories of childhood
motion sickness, and where even the smell of others’ meals around me was
off-putting let alone the thought of stomaching any of it myself.

Munich is a beautiful city with
architecture and landscape so different to Sydney that I can’t stop gushing
about it. It’s not as densely populated, quite flat, with lots of cyclists in
the city centre, and is very lush and green with it being spring at present.
You can’t help but wonder whether the locals are blasé about all this, and
whether they find our urbanised concrete jungles and rugged outdoors possessing
a contrasting beauty instead.

Munich takes its days of rest
very seriously, with most stores closed on both Sundays and public holidays
apart from some eateries. The use of credit cards isn’t all that common, hence
our panic at needing cash before we left Sydney, and even less so in the town
of Erding where the husband’s
company is located about 45km from the centre of Munich. Visiting employees are
always put up in the 80s-style hotel/B&B where we’re staying, and is
located on the outskirts of Erding where the environment is more rural – think
any of Australia’s wine regions but much, much flatter – there are even horses’
stables and free-roaming chickens on a neighbouring property! Buffet breakfast
is included daily and contains your usual hotel selection of bacon,
eggs, cereal, fruit, etc, as well as more local breakfast options of cold
meats, cheese and gherkins.

The vast selection means I can load
up on breakfast and pilfer a small snack back to our room for lunch, as there
aren’t any food options around apart from an attached Italian joint or hot food
bar about 10 minutes’ walk away. Being here makes us realise how spoilt for
choice we are in terms of cuisine back home – you are pretty much limited
to German (Bavarian) food here and Italian, with Munich being separated from the north of Italy by only a small strip of Austria. We spotted a couple of
asado restaurants and the odd Thai or sushi takeaway joint, but that
really is it.

Our first meal in Germany was
actually McDonald’s! I was lured in by the novel menu items of Magnum McFlurry
and fried Emmentaler cheese sticks, but also wanted to try the local McNuggets
for a cousin who likes to sample the accompanying sauces when he travels. I’m
sad to report that the McFlurry had an artificial chocolate taste with little
semblance to its namesake, however the cheese sticks were reassuringly stretchy
but better enjoyed as is rather than with the tub of jammy cranberry dipping
sauce.

Dinner last night was a couple of
holzofenpizza (woodfired pizza) from the
aforementioned Italian place – only €5 each (approx AUD$6.65) for takeaway! –
along with a pre-washed and chopped supermarket packet salad from up the road.
The pizza wasn’t cut into slices but this shouldn’t have any bearing on us sampling
their takeaway pasta at some point as well. Although our room has a kitchenette
with cutlery, simple crockery and a curiously lid-less saucepan, you lack a lot
of your usual kitchen comforts to be bothered with cooking your own meal. We
have, however, brought along some instant noodles should we get desperate.

The only German food we’ve
sampled so far was at a tourist trap of an outdoor place, but we weren’t
terribly hungry and the prices were decent. I’ve ticked trying a local
bratwurst off the list and, although we did drink out of steins, there was not
a drop of bier in sight. This will be
rectified soon along with some porky goodness via a biergarten suggestion from one of the husband’s work colleagues,
although we were both surprised to discover how ridiculously cheap beer is here – we’re
talking €1.20 (approx AUD$1.60) for a chilled 500mL bottle of spring water from
a convenience store versus only €1.80 (approx AUD$2.40) for a bottle of Becks!
And, yes, the local pretzels really are cheaper and better here.

Being on the outer reaches of
Munich’s S-Bahn train system makes for a pricy hour-long journey into the city centre,
so I have been relaxing in our hotel room with blogging-related activities and
planning weekend trips to Paris and London while Monsieur Poisson is at work. There
are showers and possible storms forecast for the week ahead so I may be
rural-bound for a bit longer, but perhaps that’ll give me a chance to spot a
rainbow (or double) while I’m here? Which reminds me, here’s wishing a big
happy birthday to Chocolatesuze with this photo of an extensively enviable
range of Lindt chocolate all the way from a German supermarket!

It sounds so romantic to pick up and be whisked away (lol tagging along still counts!) to Europe :D hehe. I love trying Maccas in different countries ^^ I collect the toys in the Happy Meals :) btw how long are you there for? Seems like you'll be staying there for a while

I love non planned holidays! Hope you are having an awesome time. Can't believe he let you sit in economy on your own! I've given up my biz class tix for 2 economy so he can come.. Enjoy Paris. I miss it :(

Wowsers. I'm jobhunting right now, and perhaps I should be eyeing off German companies too ;) I feel your pain about plane sleeping, I'm bloody useless at it but somehow manage to sleep for enough tiny minutes to give myself a neck kink.

Ahh! Your post is making me miss Germany so much :)) Hope you are having a fabulous time!

German supermarkets are the best aren't they?? I used to just stare at the chocolate aisle while my rellos did the grocery shopping. If you like things like Kinder Bueno - make sure you check out the Kinder chocolates there... they have soo many different varieties. Schoko-Bons are yummy! I think Phuoc is a fan of these too :)

As brief as it was, I really enjoyed my time in Munich ten years ago. The hotel breakfasts did test my culinary patience with all of those processed meats the Germans love to eat. I can only assume you went to one of the big beer halls?

Germany has a special place in my heart. As a tween I lived there for a little while. Enjoy and eat lots of everything! Get lost down side streets and explore as much as you guys can in the limited time.

Oh yes!!!! What fun - I'm thrilled for you, aren't these surprise holidays the best??? You sound like you're absorbing LOADS of culture even if the food isnt totally gourmet........ have LOTS of fun! X X X

Oh That looks good! Germany is extremely nice during winter time too (with loads of Christmas markets!)I love that picture of the chocolate display... There's more choice in Germany for chocolate addicts! (Might be because of its proximity with Switzerland?) Yum!!!!!

LinkWithin

About Me

Mademoiselle Délicieuse is Rita. Wife to the ever-patient Monsieur Poisson. Mother to the Mini-human. Australian-born but Hong Kong-Chinese at heart. Loves all things French. Tries to find time to be a food blogger.

Other good reads:

DISCLAIMER

All comments and opinions expressed on this blog belong to the author and no one else. Each blog entry is a personal anecdote and is published for entertainment purposes only. No payments or incentives have been received by the author in exchange for the comments and opinions expressed unless otherwise stated. All pictures published can be accredited to the author's own shonky photography skills.